Terming the laundry list of enhancements under the umbrella information on demand, some of the highlights include a formal release date for Viper 2, the code name for the next version of DB2; new OLAP enhancements; several new DBA (database administrator) and enterprise mashup tools; and updates to related products such as Information Server, Content Server, and Master Data Management.

Viper 2, officially known as DB2 9.5, will be released at the end of the month. It adds performance improvements that IBM claims delivers 2x performance and 5x storage efficiency for XML data compared to Oracle 11g. It also adds what IBM terms extreme autonomics, of self-management features that automate deep data compression to conserve on storage, manage memory to reduce DBA administrative burdens and provide more seamless failover support. The new software also adapts audit and encryption capabilities from classic mainframe DB2 and extends it to the distributed (Unix, Linux, and Windows) Viper editions.

In conjunction with Viper 2, IBM is also rolling out DB2 Warehouse 9.5, which adds improved workload management and performance, and further embeds OLAP processing and analytics for unstructured that can be built with a new visual front end for building analytic applications. IBM claims DB2 Warehouse 9.5 is the first data warehouse to meld unstructured data analysis alongside traditional structured business intelligence analysis, which lends itself nicely to IBM’s dynamic warehousing strategy.

The 9.5 release also adds new graphical tools cover advanced job scheduling for batch workloads and tightens up integration with IBM’s Information Server suite of data integration tools.

In another announcement related to data warehousing, IBM also expanded the platform capabilities of its C, D and E classes of Balanced Warehouse appliance systems. The C1000 and C3000 class Balanced Warehouses now support Windows, while the E7100 class now uses IBM’s Power6 technology found in its system p Unix platforms to provide improved query concurrency and workload balancing. The D5100 class appliance comes with more extensive high-availability features

Supporting the new Viper and DB2 Warehouse offerings is a new DBA administration tool that IBM calls Data Studio. It is intended to replace command line and shell scripts that DBAs typically use to manage the operation and performance of databases with a GUI-driven.

IBM has announced enhancements to IBM Information Server, the data integration platform that came in large part from the Ascential acquisition. They include a new FastTrack feature that automates part of the job of creating extract, transform and load (ETL) jobs using wizards.

Using those wizards, for example, users can import pre-built data models from IBM Rational or third party tools such as CA Erwin, to populate data dictionaries. In turn, IBM is releasing a new companion tool, Business Glossary Anywhere, that works on business analyst or BI user desktops, enabling them to window into Information Server’s data glossary through text search from third party BI or other tools.

Capitalizing on the recent acquisition of DataMirror, the tool can be used to stream in modified data through its change data capture facility, with the idea of reducing ETL loads from full sweeps to only modified data. By restricting data feeds only to modified data, IBM is trying to make its DB2 warehouse more current (it uses the terms real-time) than typical data warehouses.

Some of the enhancements leverage new vertical industry content that is the outgrowth of IBM’s client engagements. IBM is introducing or upgrading data models for financial capital markets, insurance, banking, retail, and telco, with the goal of using these models to form the core 80% of data modeling projects. Additionally, new enhancements for extracting SAP data models are also part of the new wave of releases, such as adding support for offline processing of SAP IDOCS.

As part of the information on demand releases, IBM has also announced the first major refresh of its heritage FileNet P8 content management system since the FileNet acquisition in August 2006. That includes a Web 2.0 interface to IBM’s original heritage content management line, plus new intelligent archiving enhancements for the more process-oriented P8.

IBM is also upgrading its Tango business process frameworks to include Microsoft SharePoint integration and is also updating its records crawler connector enabling IBM’s heritage content management repository to automate the archival of dated content with Notes 8 and Exchange 2007 support. There is also a new business process framework for case management.

Last but not least, IBM is starting to bring its QED Wiki technology, which was originally an alphaWorks technology for creating enterprise Wikis, into the mother ship. The new offering, described as a Mashup Starter, enables business users to use Web 2.0 techniques to integrate heterogeneous sources that could blend structured data with artifacts like RSS feeds or Wikis.